1.
George Gershwin
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George Jacob Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwins compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known, among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris as well as the opera Porgy and Bess. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell and he began his career as a song plugger, but soon started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin, and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, who refused him, after returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and the author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century, Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937 from a malignant brain tumor – glioblastoma multiforme. Gershwins compositions have been adapted for use in films and for television. Many celebrated singers and musicians have covered his songs, Gershwin was of Russian Jewish and Ukrainian Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, had served for 25 years as a mechanic for the Imperial Russian Army to earn the right of travel and residence as a Jew. His teenage son, Moishe Gershowitz, worked as a cutter for womens shoes. Moishe Gershowitz met and fell in love with Roza Bruskina, the daughter of a furrier in Vilnius. She and her family moved to New York due to increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Russia, Moishe, faced with compulsory military service if he remained in Russia, moved to America as soon as he could afford to. Once in New York, he changed his first name to Morris, Gershowitz lived with a maternal uncle in Brooklyn, working as a foreman in a womens shoe factory. When he married Rose on July 21,1895, Gershowitz soon Americanized his name to Gershwine. Their first child was born on December 6,1896, Gershwin then moved his family into a second-floor apartment on Brooklyns Snediker Avenue. Their second son, soon to be renamed George, was born at there on September 26,1898 and his birth certificate identifies him as Jacob Gershwine, with the surname pronounced Gersh-vin in the Russian and Yiddish immigrant community. He was named after his grandfather, the one time Russian army mechanic, American practice by then was to give children a first and a middle name, but had no other. He changed the spelling of his name to Gershwin when he became a professional musician, George and Ira lived in many different residences, as their father changed dwellings with each new enterprise which he became involved in. Mostly, the boys grew up around the Yiddish Theater District and they frequented the local Yiddish theaters, with George occasionally appearing onstage as an extra

2.
Fred Astaire
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Fred Astaire was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter. His stage and subsequent film and television careers spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films and several television specials, Astaire was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fifth greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in 100 Years. Gene Kelly, another star in filmed dance, said that the history of dance on film begins with Astaire, later, he asserted that Astaire was the only one of todays dancers who will be remembered. Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Johanna Ann, Astaires mother was born in the United States to Lutheran German immigrants from East Prussia and Alsace. Astaires father was born in Linz, Austria, to Jewish parents who had converted to Roman Catholicism, Astaires mother dreamed of escaping Omaha by virtue of her childrens talents, after Astaires sister, Adele Astaire, early on revealed herself to be an instinctive dancer and singer. She planned a brother and sister act, which was common in vaudeville at the time, although Astaire refused dance lessons at first, he easily mimicked his older sisters steps and took up piano, accordion, and clarinet. Despite Adele and Freds teasing rivalry, they acknowledged their individual strengths, his durability. Fred and Adeles mother suggested they change their name to Astaire, Family legend attributes the name to an uncle surnamed LAstaire. They were taught dance, speaking, and singing in preparation for developing an act and their first act was called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. Fred wore a top hat and tails in the first half, in an interview, Astaires daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, observed that they often put Fred in a top hat to make him look taller. The goofy act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey, in a tryout theater, the local paper wrote, the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville. As a result of their fathers salesmanship, Fred and Adele rapidly landed a contract and played the famed Orpheum Circuit in the Midwest, Western. Soon Adele grew to at least three inches taller than Fred and the pair began to look incongruous. The family decided to take a break from show business to let time take its course and to avoid trouble from the Gerry Society. In 1912, Fred became an Episcopalian, the career of the Astaire siblings resumed with mixed fortunes, though with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. Astaires dancing was inspired by Bill Bojangles Robinson and John Bubbles Sublett, from vaudeville dancer Aurelio Coccia, they learned the tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle. Some sources state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film titled Fanchon, the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, by age 14, Fred had taken on the musical responsibilities for their act. He first met George Gershwin, who was working as a song plugger for Jerome H. Remicks music publishing company, Fred had already been hunting for new music and dance ideas

3.
Ella Fitzgerald
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Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer often referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, Fitzgeralds rendition of the nursery rhyme A-Tisket, A-Tasket helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. Taking over the band after Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start a career that would last effectively the rest of her life. With Verve she recorded some of her more noted works. These partnerships produced recognizable songs like Dream a Little Dream of Me, Cheek to Cheek, Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, in 1993, Fitzgerald capped off her sixty-year career with her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79, Fitzgerald was born on April 25,1917, in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance Tempie Fitzgerald. Her parents were unmarried but lived together for at least two and a years after she was born. Initially living in a room, her mother and Da Silva soon found jobs. Her half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923, by 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, then a predominantly poor Italian area. She began her education at the age of six and proved to be an outstanding student. Fitzgerald had been passionate about dancing from third grade, being a fan of Earl Snakehips Tucker in particular, Fitzgerald and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school. The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music making. During this period Fitzgerald listened to recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby. Fitzgerald idolized the Boswell Sisters lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, My mother brought home one of her records, in 1932, her mother died from serious injuries she received in a car accident when Fitzgerald was 15 years of age. This left her at first in the care of her stepfather but before the end of April 1933, following these traumas, Fitzgerald began skipping school and letting her grades suffer. During this period she worked at times as a lookout at a bordello, Ella Fitzgerald never talked publicly about this time in her life. When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, in the Bronx. However, when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, eventually she escaped and for a time she was homeless

4.
Porgy and Bess
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Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera composed in 1934 by George Gershwin, with a libretto written by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin from Heywards novel Porgy and later play of the same title. Porgy and Bess was first performed in Boston on September 30,1935, Gershwin read Porgy in 1926 and proposed that he should collaborate with Heyward on Porgy and Bess. In 1934, Gershwin and Heyward began work on the project by visiting the authors native Charleston, Gershwin explained why he called Porgy and Bess a folk opera in a 1935 New York Times article, Porgy and Bess is a folk tale. Its people naturally would sing folk music, when I first began work in the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folksongs, but they are still folk music – and therefore, being in operatic form, Porgy and Bess becomes a folk opera. The libretto of Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy and it deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin Life, her drug dealer. Where the earlier novel and stage-play differ, the opera follows the stage-play. In the years following Gershwins death, Porgy and Bess was adapted for smaller performances and was later adapted into a film in 1959. Some of the songs in the opera, such as Summertime, became popular, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Gershwins original intentions although other smaller-scale productions continued to be mounted. A complete version of the score was released in 1976, since then, in the fall of 1933 Gershwin and Heyward signed a contract with the Theatre Guild to write the opera. In the summer of 1934 Gershwin and Heyward went to Folly Beach, South Carolina and he worked on the opera there and in New York. Ira Gershwin, in New York, wrote lyrics to some of the classic songs. Most of the lyrics, including Summertime, were written by Heyward, Gershwins first version of the opera, running four hours, was performed privately in a concert version in Carnegie Hall, in the fall of 1935. He chose as his choral director Eva Jessye, who directed her own renowned choir. During rehearsals and in Boston, Gershwin made many cuts and refinements to shorten the running time, the run on Broadway lasted 124 performances. The production and direction were entrusted to Rouben Mamoulian, who had directed the Broadway productions of Heywards play Porgy. The music director was Alexander Smallens, the leading roles were played by Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. The influential vaudeville artist John W. Bubbles created the role of Sportin Life, after the Broadway run, a tour started on January 27,1936, in Philadelphia and traveled to Pittsburgh and Chicago before ending in Washington, D. C. on March 21,1936

5.
Rhapsody in Blue
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Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition by American composer George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. He asked Gershwin to contribute a piece for an all-jazz concert he would give in Aeolian Hall in February 1924. Gershwin declined on the grounds that, as there would certainly be need for revisions to the score, an article entitled What Is American Music. In a phone call to Whiteman next morning, Gershwin was told that Whitemans rival Vincent Lopez was planning to steal the idea of his experimental concert, Gershwin was finally persuaded to compose the piece. Since there were only five left, Gershwin hastily set about composing a piece, and on the train journey to Boston. And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, no new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, by the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance. Gershwin began his work on January 7 as dated on the manuscript for two pianos. The piece was titled American Rhapsody during composition, many important and influential composers of the time such as John Philip Sousa and Sergei Rachmaninoff were present. The event has since become historic specifically because of its premiere of the Rhapsody, the purpose of the experiment, as told by Whiteman in a pre-concert lecture in front of many classical music critics and highbrows, was to be purely educational. It would at least provide a stone which will make it very simple for the masses to understand. The program was long, including 26 separate musical movements, divided into 2 parts and 11 sections, bearing such as True form of jazz and Contrast. Gershwins latest composition was the second to last piece, many of the numbers sounded similar and the ventilation system in the concert hall was broken. People in the audience were losing their patience, until the clarinet glissando that opened Rhapsody in Blue was heard, the Rhapsody was performed by Whitemans band, with an added section of string players, and George Gershwin on piano. Gershwin improvised some of what he was playing, and he did not write out the part until after the performance. The opening clarinet glissando came into being during rehearsal when, as a joke on Gershwin, Gorman played the opening measure with a noticeable glissando, adding what he considered a humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favourably to Gormans whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way at the concert, by the end of 1927, Whitemans band had played the Rhapsody eighty-four times, and its recording sold a million copies. To get the piece onto two sides of a 12-inch record it had to be played at a faster speed than it would usually have in concert

6.
An American in Paris
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An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem by the American composer George Gershwin, written in 1928. Inspired by the time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it evokes the sights, Gershwin composed An American in Paris on commission from the conductor Walter Damrosch. He scored the piece for the instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones. He brought back some Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, Gershwin completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the works premiere. When the tone poem moves into the blues, our American friend, has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. But, nostalgia is not a fatal disease, the American visitor once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life and the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant. Gershwin was attracted by Maurice Ravels unusual chords, but Ravel accepted him as a student, and Gershwin went on his first trip to Paris in 1926 ready to study. After his initial student audition with Ravel turned into a sharing of musical theories, Ravel said he couldnt teach him but he would send a letter referring him to Nadia Boulanger. While the studies were cut short, that 1926 trip resulted in the version of An American in Paris written as a thank you note to Gershwins hosts, Robert. Gershwin called it a ballet written so freely and much more modern than his prior works. Gershwin strongly encouraged Ravel to come to the United States for a tour, Gershwin greeted Ravel in New York in February 1928 at the start of Ravels U. S. Tour, and joined Ravel again later in the tour in Los Angeles. After a lunch together with Chaplin in Beverly Hills, Ravel was persuaded to perform a house concert in a friends music salon. Ravels tour reignited Gershwins desire to return to Paris which he did in March 1928, Ravels high praise of Gershwin in an introductory letter to Boulanger caused Gershwin to seriously consider taking much more time to study abroad in Paris. Yet after playing for her, she told him she could not teach him, Nadia Boulanger gave Gershwin basically the same advice she gave all of her accomplished master students Dont copy others, be yourself. In this case Why try to be a second rate Ravel when you are already a first rate Gershwin. This did not set Gershwin back, as his real intent abroad was to complete a new work based on Paris and perhaps a second rhapsody for piano, Paris at this time hosted many expatriate writers, among them Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, and artist Pablo Picasso, Gershwin based An American in Paris on a melodic fragment called Very Parisienne, written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. He described the piece as a rhapsodic ballet because it was written freely and is more modern than his previous works, the piece is structured into five sections, which culminate in a loose ABA format

7.
Ira Gershwin
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Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century. With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You, The Man I Love and he was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to Georges opera Porgy and Bess. The success the brothers had with their works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. However, his mastery of songwriting continued after the death of George. He wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Gershwin was born Israel Gershowitz in New York City, the oldest of four children of Morris and Rose Gershovitz. He was followed by George in 1898, Arthur in 1900, Morris changed the family name to Gershwine, or alternatively Gershvin well before their children rose to fame. Shy in his youth, he spent much of his time at home reading and he graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1914, where he met Yip Harburg, with whom he enjoyed a lifelong friendship, and a love of Gilbert and Sullivan. He attended the City College of New York but dropped out, the childhood home of Ira and George Gershwin was in the center of the Yiddish Theater District, on the second floor at 91 Second Avenue, between East 5th Street and East 6th Street. They frequented the local Yiddish theaters, while his younger brother began composing and plugging in Tin Pan Alley from the age of eighteen, Ira worked as a cashier in his fathers Turkish baths. It was not until 1921 that Ira became involved in the music business, alex Aarons signed Ira to write the songs for his next show, Two Little Girls in Blue, ultimately produced by Abraham Erlanger, along with co-composers Vincent Youmans and Paul Lannin. So as not to appear to trade off his brothers growing reputation, he wrote under the pseudonym Arthur Francis, Gershwins lyrics were well received, and allowed him to successfully enter the show-business world with just one show. Later the same year, the Gershwins collaborated for the first time on a score, for A Dangerous Maid and it was not until 1924 that Ira and George Gershwin teamed up to write the music for their first Broadway hit Lady, Be Good. Once the brothers joined forces, their combined talents became one of the most influential forces in the history of American Musical Theatre, when the Gershwins teamed up to write songs for Lady, Be Good, the American musical found its native idiom. Together, they wrote the music for more than twelve shows, some of their more famous works include The Man I Love, Fascinating Rhythm, Someone to Watch Over Me, I Got Rhythm and They Cant Take That Away from Me. Their partnership continued until Georges sudden death from a tumor in 1937. Following his brothers death, Ira waited nearly three years before writing again, after this temporary retirement, he teamed up with such accomplished composers as Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, and Harold Arlen. Over the next fourteen years, Gershwin continued to write the lyrics for film scores. But the failure of Park Avenue in 1946, a show about divorce

8.
Shall We Dance (1937 film)
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Released in 1937, is the seventh of the ten Astaire-Rogers musical comedy films. The idea for the film originated in the desire to exploit the successful formula created by Richard Rodgers. The musical featured an American dancer getting involved with a touring Russian ballet company, peter P. Peters, an American ballet dancer billed as Petrov, dances for a ballet company in Paris owned by the bumbling Jeffrey Baird. Peters secretly wants to blend classical ballet with modern jazz dancing, and he contrives to meet her, but she is less than impressed. They meet again on an ocean liner traveling back to New York, unknown to them, a plot is launched as a publicity stunt proving that they are actually married. Outraged, Linda becomes engaged to the bumbling Jim Montgomery, much to the chagrin of both Peters and Arthur Miller, her manager, who secretly launches more fake publicity, Peters and Keene, unable to squelch the rumor, decide to actually marry and then immediately get divorced. Linda begins to fall in love with her husband, but then discovers him with another woman, Lady Denise Tarrington, seeing that he truly loves her, she happily joins him onstage. Ira Gershwin seemed decidedly less excited by the idea, none of his lyrics make reference to the notion of blending different styles of dance, and Astaire was also not enthusiastic about the concept. The instrumental track Walking the Dog, however, has frequently recorded and has been played from time to time on classical music radio stations. Nathaniel Shilkret, musical director for the movie, hired Jimmy Dorsey, Dorsey was in Hollywood at the time working the Kraft Music Hall radio show on NBC hosted by Bing Crosby. Dorsey is heard soloing on Slap That Bass, Walking the Dog, hermes Pan collaborated with Astaire on the choreography throughout and Harry Losee was brought in to help with the ballet finale. Gershwin modeled the score on the ballets of the 19th century. Some critics have attributed Astaires discomfort with ballet to his disdain for inventing up to the arty. Overture to Shall We Dance, was written by George Gershwin in 1937 as the introduction to his score for Shall We Dance, performance time runs about four minutes. French Ballet Class written in the style of the galop, the increasing complexity and chromaticism in Gershwins music can be detected between music for this sequence and Gershwins earlier effort at a rumba, the Cuban Overture, written five years earlier. Beginners Luck, A brief comic tap solo with cane where Astaires rehearsing to a record of the number is cut short when the record gets stuck, waltz of the Red Balloons written in the style of a valse joyeaux. Slap That Bass, In a mixed race number unusual for its time, Astaire encounters a group of African-American musicians holding a jam session in a spotless, dudley Dickerson introduces the first verse of the song whose chorus is then taken up by Astaire. George Gershwins color home-movie footage of Astaire rehearsing this number was discovered only in the 1990s, Dance of the Waves, written in the style of the barcarolle

9.
Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls
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Gershwin Plays Gershwin, The Piano Rolls is an album of piano rolls recorded by George Gershwin. It was released by Nonesuch Records in 1993, Gershwin recorded these piano rolls between 1916 and 1927. Several rolls use overdubbing, so that Gershwin is in playing a four-handed piece solo. The final selection, An American In Paris, was recorded by Frank Milne in 1933, Milne worked as a roll-editor with Gershwin in the 1920s, and edited several of the rolls reproduced on this disc. The piano rolls were played back on a 9-foot Yamaha Disklavier grand piano, the Pianola allows for the operator to add live effects with piano footpumps and expression levers. Allmusic awarded the album with 4.5 stars and its review by Scott Yanow states, certainly such tunes as Novelette in Fourths, So Am I, and Idle Dreams are long forgotten but worth reviving. George Gershwin – Piano rolls reproduced on Yamaha Disklavier DCF111S player piano Max Wilcox – producer, engineer